Tuesday night a customer came to me with about 1 minute left on my shift. I was moonlighting (day off) at another store. At this store you MUST clock in and out at the scheduled time (or else it's trouble for you) He wanted me to talk to his wife on his phone about the pork butt in the ad. I didn't have an ad BTW. The wife didn't see a bone in the picture, and the ones we had in the counter and on the ad were bone in. There is no way I could talk to the lady in under a minute and then of course bone out the pork buts for the husband. One problem was his cologne stunk like heck and it was all over the phone that he wanted me to speak on. It almost made me sick. Also, the volume was way down and I could barely hear her. I wasn't as nice as I should have been. It wasn't their fault that I only had a minute left. I punched out and then I stayed and did it, but not without first making sure he knew I would have preferred to go home. It didn't take very long and I didn't really have anything important to do. I felt bad that night and most of today.
Later, I had car problems. Something I can't handle. I got to the shop at closing time. They stayed late and were very nice about it. I told them what I did the previous night and that they are a lot nicer than me. One big difference is it was their business. But I still should have been nicer yesterday and I would have deserved it if they had turned me away.
Have any of you ever felt guilty about the way you acted towards a customer?
I have been a dick more times than I care to remember and I really don't see anything wrong with what you did. You were in a tough spot, but still you came through for them. Isn't it a bigger offense to work off the clock than to work a couple minutes over time? I am fairly certain that is a termination offense in most box stores. You were just moonlighting, so screw their policy right? You could had very easily told him "no" and walked out and been well within your job requirements by doing that (I have done that plenty of times). You are coming off a pretty considerate to me.
I have told customers no before and went home. I would use excuses like "I am supposed to clock out in 30 seconds or I am in trouble" or "Everything has been sanitized, I am done for the day". When i would get in my car and start heading home I would start to feel that guilt creeping over me and think "She was just a nice lady who wanted a couple nice TBones maybe to surprise her husband with and I ruined her plans." I often wished that I just said "Screw the policy" and took care of the customer.
I am glad you took care of this one, even if you were a little disgruntled about it. Whether he appreciated it or not, I think you should have a clean conscious about it. He got what he wanted.
I tend to go the other way. Try to please them to death, but really feel hurt when a customer screws me. Then i never treat them the same and I am rude to them and then feel guilty. I had one customer ask to buy a lamb which at the time was 120 dollars. He then asked me to cut in into curry pieces. He then hands me 90 dollars and says that all he has. That changed our policies for ever. We have both customers I guess. We have real good ones that appreciate what we do u
and look forward to seeing their butcher. Then we have the other kind who think they can just abuse us and treat us bad.
I tend to go the other way. Try to please them to death, but really feel hurt when a customer screws me. Then i never treat them the same and I am rude to them and then feel guilty. I had one customer ask to buy a lamb which at the time was 120 dollars. He then asked me to cut in into curry pieces. He then hands me 90 dollars and says that all he has. That changed our policies for ever. We have both customers I guess. We have real good ones that appreciate what we do u and look forward to seeing their butcher. Then we have the other kind who think they can just abuse us and treat us bad.
Either way, it's the meat game.
Have a good day
That's real nice, but I want to know if you EVER felt bad. Was there ever any time when you should have been a little nicer. I'm not talking about how we are 99.999% of the time.
I had a lady come in and was really picky about her meat. She always asked if it was fresh and what I thought about how it looked. One day I asked her if she can see it herself. She told me no because she was blind.
OOPS!!!!!!!
From that day forward I did my best to get her the best service and product possible to the point that I was the only person she would let help her.
Personally I think you went above and beyond. I'm sure the customer had to realize what he was asking you to do at closing time and would understand your slight negative attitude. If it were me, I would have told him to comeback in the morning when I had more time to help him out.
Despite company policy, honesty truly is the best policy. After acquiring the vested skills required to become a journeyman I went above and beyond regarding customer service. Just as you had Burger, doing so for a number of years. Occasionally a twinge of guilt over what I thought was less than stellar service would gnaw on me. Not long yet still long enough to question my effort. After 10 years in our trade it became clear I best served every customer with honesty. When closing and helping a customer, granted company pollicy payroll in play, I'd always make it very clear I wasn't granted the "knife time" to perform the special service they requested. Yet, and there's always yet, I made it clear I could help them with any questions on my way to clock out. Even possibly for a few minutes before I had to leave. Most folks recognized the extra effort along with the safe practice of only approved trade skills. In other words working off the clock using a potentially dangerous tool. The majority always came back. Knowing I was a personable tradesman, yet bound to the integrity of the craft as well as the character expected of myself as an employee.
Gads that was wordy! Nothing like an extra cup of coffee.
I'm sure there were times that I dis-pleased customers. But I think I was at least very good at not being rude in any way that could get me in trouble. Also I worked in a pretty strict union environment. Get caught working off the clock and you could get terminated. Work unauthorized overtime and you could get written up and eventually terminated. It only took one warning letter that I received from the union threatening my termination for working off the clock for me to "get" it. The company also had a very strict and very good, in my opinion, sanitation policy. When working an evening shift you were allowed the last hour for sanitation. The evening cutter was also left with a pretty hefty production list. There were almost always times when customers wanted service during that last hour. For the most part we would do our best to ignore the customer if they wanted service during that last hour. However if that wasn't possible I would explain the policy to the customer and tell them that if the store manager approved I would be happy to service them. I would then call the store manager and tell him or her the situation and that I would service the customer, not service the customer and continue cleaning, work approved overtime to finish cleaning, or leave at the end of my shift with the sanitation un-finished. Whatever he decided, it had to be put in writing on my production log and signed. I would then make a photocopy for my own protection and take it home with me. Often the store manager would refuse to do that, in which case I would not service the customer, finish my list, the last item was always to completely clean and sanitize the department. Once I became a meat manager I was more flexible and not require anything in writing but still have the store manager make the call but not require it be put in writing and I would just both service the customer and if necessary work the overtime to finish cleaning. AT least I didn't have to worry about a meat manager beating me up over it and I had the store managers pretty well handled so they knew it didn't pay to give me grief.
Sad it had to be that way but it was all about CYA. If the company Sanitarian showed up first thing the next morning and the department was not properly cleaned the night before the person who worked that shift could be fired unless he had the documentation to prove he was directed not to finish cleaning.
i now have some faithful customers, only because I went out of my way to help them, like I have 1 older lady who when i first met her would pick out her catfish filets then ask me what I thought... so after a week or so of this one day I said to her... Ill tell ya what ...ill pick out your flirts if its ok with you and ill pick them as if I were buying them for myself... she said ok...so after that its her thing now... I know what day she comes so I pick through them and have them weighed wrapped and waiting, its truly the little things that win the customers over ...if we all remember this tidbit ( you can please some of the people some of the time but you will never please all the people all the time.... but, please those you can)
If the customer is an a$$, then I never feel bad. I'm talking about 100% nice innocent people who happen to catch me at a bad moment and I didn't handle it well.
I've been union for the last 33 of my 37 years. When I was non union, I got minimum wage, and no vacation or other benefits. I think it's nice to free time for a customer if it will take 10 minutes or less. I don't consider it wrong unless your're skipping a lot of lunches and coming in an hour early a few times per week.
In the original post, I mentioned the mechanic who stayed a few minutes after to take my car and all the necessary info. He had a 50 mile drive home and probably wanted to get started ASAP. He could have easily told me to come back the next day. That, BTW, would not have been possible for me because I was working the next few days. I did something nice on Tuesday (but with a bad attitude) and then Wednesday, someone was nice to me. Sure they got $169.00 from me and I got nothing from my customer, but I still think I have a point there.
I also think it's nice to stay after to help a customer if you're union because someday, you may have to ask that same customer not to cross your picket line. If you have to dirty a saw that MUST be left clean, that's another issue that I'd love to talk about, but don't have the time right now.
I always treat my customers like royalty burgermeister,I'd say the reason you felt bad about the situation is because you are one of the few people who enjoy their career and don't just show up to do the bare minimum for a check.every body has bad days,I will admit to being a little short with people from time to time but if anyway possible within my power they leave my store satisfied, and prepared for a delicious eating experience
